SMS has been touted as an untapped marketing channel where consumers prefer to communicate with brands.
Forbes called it the “Marketing Tool of the future.”
The glut of mind-boggling statistics, and influencer hype, make SMS marketing sound foolproof. But, as with any marketing channel, you must approach it strategically to be successful at it.
So, if you’re experimenting with SMS marketing or looking for an example of a real-world SMS campaign, in this article, I will explain the insights and thought process I used to create an original, data-driven SMS campaign for conversion rate optimization that increased deal win rates by up to 41%!
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a growth marketing tactic that focuses on increasing users’ likelihood to perform target actions at various touchpoints in the marketing funnel. The overall goal is to improve user engagements and conversion rates at touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey.
Clinton Byrd – Growth Marketing Expert
And, in case you are new to SMS marketing, I highly advise you to read my other article, “9 Mistakes That Ruin Your SMS Marketing Campaigns” before you dabble in this channel.
Note: The term “SMS” is synonymous with “text message,” and will be used interchangeably.
Improving the User Experience With SMS
Every marketing campaign idea should start with the customer. And identifying customer preferences and behaviors is key to improving the user experience, as well as the chances of success for any campaign.
So, with this in mind, we look to a survey revealed that 75% of millennials prefer SMS communications.
And, another that shows 63% of respondents would switch to a company that offered text messaging as a communication channel.
To validate these claims, I analyzed a dataset with a sample size of 6,000 e-commerce customers. My data showed that 63% of customers explicitly chose text messages as their preferred method of contact!
This data validates an opportunity to improve our users’ experience with text message communications. But, we don’t just want to turn on SMS for every existing campaign – we want it to be targeted and impactful. So, the next step is finding the best touchpoint to introduce SMS.
Alignment With Sales Goals
With a growth marketing mindset, every campaign should drive toward revenue. This can be for direct conversions or generating qualified leads for sales teams.
For this campaign, we focus on the latter, using text to improve sales conversions, which falls in the realm of “funnel optimization.”
Funnel optimization is the process of identifying key touchpoints in the sales and marketing funnels and tactically improving them to increase conversion rates. While this is typically done to meet business goals, it may also improve the users’ experiences in their buyer journeys.
Clinton Byrd – Growth Marketing Expert
So, now we are looking for an ideal touchpoint in the buyer journey where SMS would be impactful. This requires a little growth hacking, where we identify “low-hanging fruit” opportunities that could yield immediate results.
With this purpose in mind, a statistic regarding user preferences for scheduling appointments offers inspiration:
67% of people would rather text with a business about appointments and scheduling than by email or phone.
ZipWhip
In the world of sales, an “appointment” translates into a “meeting.” Which is a common goal for sales reps. So, for our campaign, we will leverage SMS to increase the meetings booked by prospects with the sales team.
Factoring in Lead Qualification and Buying Intent
Typically, in sales, meetings are considered strong indicators of buying intent.
When it comes to lead qualification, leads that request meetings are often considered hand-raisers. And those that perform this action typically become sales-accepted leads or sales-qualified leads. Which is an action that should generate a significant positive score in any Lead Scoring Model.
Furthermore, the number of Meetings booked is also a metric that you can easily track and assign a dollar value to for sales forecasting. Making it a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that sales leaders can monitor to assess progress toward sales goals and support sales coaching.
Ask any sales leader, a sales rep with no scheduled meetings halfway through the month is a huge red flag. Meetings are great leading indicators for deals, revenue, and a healthy sales pipeline.
So, for this campaign, we would use the “number of meetings booked” as our KPI in custom reports. And, we could go a step further by attributing revenue, (based on the deal amount) for meetings booked with our SMS campaign.
Optimizing Conversions In The Sales Funnel
Given the importance of meetings in the sales funnel, we can hypothesize that the action of booking a meeting is a conversion that can be optimized to directly increase sales conversions. Which will help us in our efforts to optimize the sales funnel and directly impact revenue.
To support this hypothesis, I analyzed a sample of data with approximately 2,300 ecommerce leads, and found that leads who scheduled a meeting had a 72% higher conversion rate than those who did not!
This data confirms that by targeting audiences at this key touchpoint in their buyer journey we could influence conversion rates, and immediately impact revenue in the sales pipeline!
An SMS Campaign For Conversion Rate Optimization
So far, the research here revealed a lot of promising insights for our campaign:
- SMS marketing leads higher engagement rates
- Users prefer scheduling meetings using SMS
- Leads who schedule meetings have higher conversion rates
With all these factors in mind, for this campaign, I introduced SMS messages into existing touchpoints to offer meetings to leads with buying intent. And the campaign goal was to use these targeted SMS communications to increase the number of leads who schedule a meeting with our sales team.
Given that SMS communications are more likely to result in scheduled meetings, these leads would also have higher potential customer conversion rates. This supporta our strategic goal of funnel optimization to drive revenue growth!
The Actual Campaign Results
With a sound, data-driven hypothesis, this SMS campaign was well-posotioned for success, and the results proved it:
- Click rate of 89% (count of UTM clicks/Count of SMS sent)
- 10% increase in meetings booked with sales-qualified leads for the sales team.
- Leads who engaged with this campaign had a 41% higher close rate than the current benchmark for customers who booked meetings!
This big win for my sales team in helping them make the most of the existing pipeline, reach their goals, and drive predictable revenue for the company.
This is where I’ll leave you, with a data-driven and actionable idea for an SMS campaign for funnel optimization that worked in practice.
I hope this article was helpful in offering or inspiring some creative ideas. If it was, please share this article to support my blog, and shout-outs on LinkedIn are always welcome.
And, before you dive head first into an SMS marketing campaign, be sure to read my other article, “SMS Marketing Strategy Mistakes That Ruin Campaigns.” This is a must-read if you are new to SMS marketing, or want to improve your existing campaigns.
Cheers to your growth marketing journeys!
